Monday, April 2, 2012

Rick Santorum says North Carolina will be one of the key states to turn around his flagging campaign. But should he drop out before the Republican presidential primaries get that far?

Santorum went on "Fox News Sunday" and vowed that he had no intentions of ending his bid any time soon. Sen. Mitch McConnell on Sunday became the latest Republican leader to call on him to do so. If Santorum loses in Wisconsin and Maryland on Tuesday, as expected, the volume will turn up even more. Santorum is having none of it.

"The map in May looks very, very good for us. Texas, and Arkansas and West Virginia and North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky. We've got some great states, where we are ahead in every poll in all of those states," Santorum told Chris Wallace.

He's actually tied, 30-30, with Mitt Romney in North Carolina, according to a poll last week from Public Policy Polling. But his point is the same: Romney has done poorly in the South, and a batch of Southern states hold their primaries in May. A conservative turnout could give Santorum a boost.

"If you listen to the folks across this country, we are hearing over and over again, stay in there, we need a conservative," Santorum told Wallace. "We cannot do what we have done in the past as Republicans which is: settle for something that we know is not going to be successful for us. That the establishment wants to give us."

Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday: "There’s one thing worse than … a convention fight, and that’s picking the wrong candidate, not picking the best candidate to give us the best chance to win.”

A candidate must win 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination. Romney has 568, or less than half the required number. Santorum has 273, according to the Associated Press.

There's little doubt Romney has the nomination wrapped up. But Santorum raises an interesting thought. While polls show the long Republican primary has battered the public's perception of Romney, Santorum points out that the longer the primary goes on, the shorter the general election campaign is. That could neutralize President Obama's financial advantage.

We have no doubt Romney will prevail. But Obama and Hillary Clinton went toe-to-toe for a lot longer than Romney and Santorum have, and we saw how that turned out for Obama. If nothing else, Santorum's continued viability, however slim, would spark more interest in the May 8 primary. It also would be bad news for opponents of North Carolina's marriage amendment. If social conservatives turn out for Santorum, they'll certainly pull the lever in favor of the amendment.

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comments:

How sad that Santorum only thinks about his own campaign and that the Observer thinks Rick's self-serving delusions are more newsworthy than this quote from Ron Paul on CBS's "Face The Nation":

"The truth is, I'm trying to save the Republican Party from themselves because they want perpetual wars, they don't care about presidents who assassinate American citizens, they don't care about searching our houses without search warrants, and these are the kind of things people care about."

Of particular note is that Democrats and Independents thought they were getting that with Obama, only to find out that he was Dubya on steroids when it came to trashing the Constitution.

So, if only Romney is left on the primary ballot in on May 8th, does that mean there is any chance that this state won't ban every kind of civil and domestic union not sanctioned by the christian right? God help us!

I don't aste my time worrying about this stuff. Romney is going to win the nomination and then he is going to get beat by a large marfin by Obama. Not even wsting my time worrign about any of the debates and politics. It will be done

It is unfortunate that there is support for Santorum. Though the so called Christian Right (neither) supports him and his causes, the Democrats are assured election victories because long term Republican and Libertarian minded voters like me will probably not vote if Santorum is the candidate. I find it impossible to hold my nose and vote for someone preaching religious rule - I don't see that these "conservatives" are much different than the ayatollahs or taliban zealots. I cannot in good conscious vote for the socialist democrats either.

Santorum prefers Obama to Romney because Obama was raised by a Catholic grandmother. Vatican Osservatore Romano editor Vian said on May 18th that Obama "is not a pro-abortion president" - proves stand to encourage Catholics to breed and to encourage non-Catholics to abort out of spite. The Vatican likes the abortion status quo in the USA for this reason. Their purpose is only conquest, not faith. Carolignian Brzezinski spawned Zia al Haq, Khomeini, and bin Laden - breaks up superpowers via Aztlan and Kosovo as per Joel Garreau's Nine Nations. Brzezinski, Buckley and Buchanan winked anti-Semitic votes for Obama, delivered USA to Pope's feudal basket of Bamana Republics. Michael Pfleger and Joe Biden prove Obama is the Pope's boy. Obama is half a Kearney from County Offaly in Ireland. Talal got Pontifical medal as Fatima mandates Catholic-Muslim union against Jews (Francis Johnson, Great Sign, 1979, p. 126), Catholic Roger Taney wrote Dred Scott decision. John Wilkes Booth, Tammany Hall and Joe McCarthy were Catholics. Now Catholic majority Supreme Court. Catholics Palmisano, Grasso, Damato, Langone, Mozilo, Ranieri, Dioguardi, Palmieri destroyed American industry with their casuistrous ethics. Subprime construction mobsters had hookers deliver mortgages to banks. McCain's Keeting started it all. Brzezinski set up Arab Spring and Zia, so why surprised bin Laden was in Sineurabia code? Pakistanis descend from weasels who sold their Hindu brothers into hundreds of years of islamic slavery. That is why FIAT supplied Iran and every Catholic is like a Manchurian Candidate programmed to kill their best friend of they felt the "Holy Father" required it. They find American cars too advanced to use or their mechanics to fix. Ellis Island Popecrawlers brought in FDR. Since Pio Nino banned voting they consider our Constitution and laws immoral and illegitimate and think nothing of violating them or passing legislation that undermine them. They believe that they can not be fully loyal to their superiors if they do not go the extra stretch and break the law intentionally. Their slovenly, anti-intellectual work ethic produces vacuous, casuistrous blather and a tangle of hypocritical, contradictory regulations. Their clubhouse purges provided praetorian training for corporate misgovernance. They sided with the enemy in both World Wars and now, too. Every American boom has been caused by an Evangelical Revival and every major Depression by the domination of new Catholic immigrants. NYC top drop outs: Hispanic 32%, Black 25%, Italian 20%. NYC top illegals: Ecuadorean, Italian, Polish. Ate glis-glis but blamed plague on others, now lettuce coli. Their bigotry most encouraged terror yet they reap most security funds. View this life as casuistry training to survive purgatory. Rabbi circumcises lower, Pope upper brain. Tort explosion by glib casuistry. Hollywood Joe Kennedy had Bing Crosby proselytize. Bazelya 1992 case proves PLO-IRA-KLA links. Our enemy is the Bru666elles Sineurabia feudal Axis and the only answer is alliance with Israel and India. They killed six million Jews, a million Serbs, half a million freemasons, a quarter million Gypsies, they guided the slaughter of Assyrians and Armenians, and promoted the art of genocide throughout the world now they are relentless in their year to canonize nazi pope. 9/11 was Yugo Crimean blowback: Napoleon started the crusade against the Photius Heresy to avenge his uncle, Clinton wanted to cover Pacelli's war crimes. They had no qualms hijacking American policy in Vietnam or Balkans to papal ends, but when American interests opposed those of the papacy in Iraq and Iran, they showed their true fangs (Frum, Unpatriotic Conservatives).

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The Observer's editorial board cares deeply about Charlotte and the Carolinas, and has a problem with public officials who have forgotten that they report to citizens. Editorial page editor Taylor Batten and associate editors Peter St. Onge and Eric Frazier tackle politics and public policy issues locally, across the state and nation. Kevin Siers tackles those issues too in cartoons. Read their columns and biographical information on the CharlotteObserver.com Opinion page.